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聽之任之

简听之任之 · 繁聽之任之

Mandarin · pinyin tīng zhī rèn zhī

(idiom) to take a laissez-faire attitude; to turn a blind eye (towards sth undesirable)

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Characters in this entry

聽: tīng · hear, listen; understand; obey
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
任: rèn · trust to, rely on, appoint; to bear, duty, office; allow
听: tīng · hear; understand; obey, comply

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–1 · ting1 zhi1 ren4 zhi1

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

聽之任之 · find source passages ↗ · 听之任之 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ting3 zi1 jam6 zi1

Cantonese word readings for 聽之任之. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to let matters drift; to allow something to continue or develop

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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